President Erdogan’s recent troubles with the United States have prevented Turkey from playing a potentially constructive role in the early phases of the Israel-Hamas war.

On the two-decade anniversary of the U.S. invasion, Iraq is weakly governed, leaving it prone to instability and meddling by neighbors—especially Iran.

Salih and Abdul-Mahdi are capable politicians in a nation that desperately needs that, at a time when progress seems possible.